Category × County
17 Best Parks and Playgrounds In Edinburgh and Lothian
Wind is the variable that catches families out here. Several of the seventeen are coastal — Yellowcraig and John Muir Country Park most obviously — and a still, bright morning in town can be something else entirely by the time you reach the sand. Dress everybody one layer warmer than the forecast suggests and you will get an extra hour out of the day. Inland the character changes: Beecraigs Country Park, Almondell and Calderwood Country Park and Muiravonside Country Park are sheltered, wooded, river-side sorts of visits, and Muiravonside is the one marked free in our records. City parks come next — Holyrood Park, Inverleith Park — a shorter and more casual outing. Almond Valley Heritage Trust sits under parks in our data while behaving like a farm and museum day, and carries both flags to prove it.
Top parks and playgrounds in Edinburgh and Lothian
Showing 1–12 of 17
Parks and PlaygroundsYellowcraig
Parks and PlaygroundsJohn Muir Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsAlmondell and Calderwood Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsInverleith Park
Parks and PlaygroundsBeecraigs Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsHolyrood Park
Parks and PlaygroundsMuiravonside Country Park
Children's FarmsAlmond Valley Heritage Trust
Parks and PlaygroundsVogrie Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsDalkeith Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsPolkemmet Country Park
Children's FarmsEast Links Family Park
Five of the seventeen have indoor space flagged, and on this list that is genuinely useful, because the coastal sites give you nowhere at all to get out of the weather. Take more clothing than feels necessary, a flask if you own one, and a bag for wet sand, which otherwise lives in the footwell for a month. Nothing here is difficult. It simply punishes optimism about Scottish weather.
Parks and Playgrounds in Edinburgh and Lothian: FAQs
What do we need for the coastal ones?
Windproofs before waterproofs, a hat each even in summer, and a complete change of clothes for any child who goes near water, which is all of them. Buckets and spades earn their place. So does a flask, because there is no guarantee of anywhere to buy a hot drink, and a cold parent gives up long before a cold child does.
Is there anywhere here that copes with rain?
Only five of the seventeen carry an indoor flag, and of those, Almond Valley Heritage Trust was built as a proper visitor attraction, not a park with a visitor centre bolted on. On the rest, rain means a brisk half-hour and back to the car. That is no failure — a short walk in bad weather beats an afternoon indoors — but it is not a day out.
Which have something a child can actually play on?
Whether a site has swings and a climbing frame is not something we record, so it is worth asking the park, because a country park with no play area is a hard sell at five. City parks such as Inverleith Park are generally the surer thing on that front. A beach does the same job as a playground for most children, and the sand never has a queue.
How long does one of these fill?
A beach in the right weather takes a whole day and you will have to drag everyone away from it. The same beach in a wind takes an hour. Inland, a wooded country park is a comfortable morning. Plainly, this category is more weather-dependent than any other, so pack a fallback instead of a schedule and let the day tell you what it is.